dazed

I had a similar problem with my car in the hotel carpark where I was staying on holiday last year. I put it down to a nearby mobile phone mast, although that might not have been the cause of the problem. I also discovered that if I stood at a very specific spot in the car park (about 20 yards away from the car!) then I could reliably unlock it with the fob. Totally bizarre.

My IS250 auto box delays the gear shifts when cold and refuses to select 6th until I've driven several miles. As I understand it, this behaviour is quite normal and nothing to worry about.

I'd assumed the thread had been started by some dodgy AI bot and I had therefore resisted the urge to reply. Clearly you are human after all. :D You should get the car checked. It might be something as simple as the tickover being set too low or the car being on an incline. On the other hand it could be something more serious, like a problem with the torque converter.

I'm in the process of getting 60K service quotes for my IS250 auto, and to be honest I think the dealers are trying it on at the moment. The quotes I've received (East Anglian dealers) range from £550 to £640. After haggling with each of them, the best price I got one of them down to was £487. Considering I paid £330 for an identical 40K service about 18 months ago that equates to an increase of about 50%! Bearing in mind the car is out of warranty I'll probably just take it to a trusted local garage who'll charge about £180 for exactly the same service.

I am impressed! what sort of driving is that? It's quite easy to achieve that sort of MPG on certain types of journey, but I doubt it's typical of anyone's overall driving. A couple of years ago I drove from Exeter to Cambridge and managed 44mpg in my 250 auto. That was achieved by driving at a fairly steady 70-75mph with a couple of stops and a bit of a crawl around the Birmingham area. It was all the more impressive because I had a passenger, full fuel tank, two full suitcases and associated holiday stuff in the back of the car. My typical monthly average varies between about 32mpg (winter) and 36mpg (summer).

That statement is complete and utter nonsense. I can only assume you're trolling this thread.

I originally went along to my local Lexus dealer with a view to buying a 220d. When I arrived the dealer suggested taking both a 220d and 250 auto out for a drive. Since I had enough time to do so I did. I would strongly advise you to at least do the same before you spend your money. Also do some independent research of your own - the owners themselves are the best source of information. It may be that the 220d is right for you. For me it was the 250 auto. Keep an open mind. Buying the wrong car can be a very expensive and frustrating mistake.

Good heavens. That really does look impressive - almost mirror like. :o I've clearly got a lot to learn. :D

Thanks Tango and Ironrose for taking the time to pass on such useful information. I'll seriously consider acting on some of the suggestions. Just for the record, my car is Brechin Slate (a sort of light icy blue, so quite light in colour) which might partly explain how I'm getting away with such a shabby regime. Thanks again.

+ 1 I would not want the dealer or any one else clean wash and clean the car... I am a part time detailer myself...and as all Lexus models have soft paint as opposed to other german rivals which comes with hard paint..... its very easy that the car's paint might end up with swirls with one bad wash This is all interesting stuff, but I have to confess to being somewhat ignorant in such matters. My "who I will let wash my car" threshold is somewhat lower than yours as I tend to draw the line at bob-a-job cub scouts who I'm worried will scrach the car (out of ignorance rather than carelessness). I also agree that the Lexus paintwork is quite soft, although I'd always put that down to modern water based paints (but I'm not claiming any expertise or knowledge in this area so I'm probably wrong). However (and this is where some of you are probably going to cringe ant tut-tut), this is the external cleaning regime that I use on my four year old IS250. About once a month: A tiny dash of fairy liquid on the windscreen with a little water to remove the grease/oil film. Two buckets of warm water and a clean-ish (and stone free) sponge. Wash the car down from top to bottom with fairly random sponge movements. Rinse the car with a couple of buckets of clean water and dry off with a chamois leather. After every third wash or so I also: Check for stone chips and treat accordingly. About twice a year (typically spring and autumn) I'll polish the car with turtle wax. And that's it, apart from the free dealer wash twice a year when the car is being serviced. Now, to my untrained eye and 70K miles later, the car is in immaculate condition, even when I inspect it in good strong daylight from all angles. No sign of any swirls, or marks of any kind. Maybe the car lacks some of it's original showroom shine, but it looks pretty damn good to me after a wash and I'm probably fussier than the average guy. To be honest, the one thing that really lets my car down and is noticable after a wash and polish are the shabby alloys, but that's another story as we all know. What I guess I'm asking for are any tips that other users could pass on that might benefit me (and I'm guessing there are plenty). For example, is there a proper way to use a sponge, or should I even be using one? Is a car shampoo really important? Is fairy liquid a bad idea (I don't get it on the paintwork)? Thanks

Yeah, it must be a real bugger having to put up with driving around in a Lexus.

Probably worth getting your tracking checked. Mine got knocked out a little a couple of winters ago and it affected the overall handling/steering/feel of the car quite noticably. Having said that the 2.4 Accord is a very nice car, so the overall driving experience isn't going to be significantly different. Most of the differences are small and how they are perceived will probably come down to personal preferences and what you've been used to in the past. When I picked up my IS my initial impression of the car after a few weeks was that it was much more refined/smooth/quiet than the Honda, but that I felt a little more detached from the wheels. On balance I was happy with the tradeoff.

It has a slightly longer, racier looking bonnet - but you're right, visually it's very similar to the current one.

Phew. I thought from the thread title you might be wishing you'd kept the Honda. :P

I too had driven a Honda Accord for 8 years before switching to an IS250 four years ago. Although the Honda was a fine car, the IS250 is waaaaay better. You won't be disappointed.

An excellent and fair post. Summarises pretty much what I would have written if I could have spared the time.

If economy is a big factor in your choice then the 220d is unlikely to be right car for you. I would recommend that you investigate other 'prestige' cars before making your final decision. Just my two cents.

Maybe, but it's not such a great feature when you leave your IS in the long stay car park at Heathrow for a month's holiday down under in the deepest, darkest, coldest, wettest part of winter and the junk in your wife's handbag presses against the key fob button for 5 seconds as she rumages around for her passport at the nearby bus stop....

This happened to me once. I was crawling around in the loft doing some jobs and when I went outside I noticed all the windows on my IS were wide open! Needless to say I was not impressed. Fortunately the car was going in for a service that week, so I got the dealer to disable this 'feature'.

To the OP. I was made a similar 'offer' after my last service. They basically wanted £920 (IIRC) for my next three services, which I figured out would cost in the region of £850 if I just haggled a little each time I booked the car in. The scheme also effectively forced me to pay in advance (in monthly installments) for the services. Personally, I'd expect a discount in return for agreeing to tie myself into a deal with one particular dealer. As you can probably guess, I didn't take them up on the offer.

I recently paid £192 for a 50K service at Cambridge Lexus. As far as I'm aware 50K and 70K services are the same.

But that's just the way it is. People (myself included) often only turn to internet forums when they have a problem. Therefore, such forums tend to revolve only around the negatives. C'est la vie.

I've recently booked my IS250 in for an interim service (50K) with Cambridge Lexus for £192 (inc. of VAT). Never had any problems with either the dealer or the car, so I'm a happy bunny.

That's insane - there's got to be something wrong with your engine. I'm averaging 33mpg and that's with the petrol engine.

On balance I'd opt for the parking brake. Putting the transmission into 'Park' will be equally effective until there's some major failure in the gearbox caused by the stress being put on it. Or maybe the gearbox could happily withstand such a load. Don't think I'd want to find out though!